论文总字数：44799字

摘 要

《美国的悲剧》被认为是西奥多·德莱塞最著名的作品之一，小说塑造了一位美国青年，克莱德·格里菲斯。为了得到更高的社会地位，他谋杀了他的已经怀孕的前女友，被送上了电椅。他悲剧的一生是值得世人研究的。

根据弗洛伊德的三元人格理论（本我、自我和超我），本论文将导致个人悲剧的原因归结为主人公的人格结构。正常情况下，这三种人格保持着一种动态平衡，否则，此三者的冲突致使人格退化，甚至摧毁整个人生。

本论文主要分析了克莱德在崇拜物质生活、追求所谓“爱情”以及一步步走向悲惨结局的三个过程中，其本我、自我和超我的冲突与协调。具体而言：本论文分析了克莱德沉浸在对物质生活的渴望而厌恶那种布道的生活，从而导致人性的丧失过程中的三元人格(本我、自我和超我)的冲突；其次分析了克莱德追求建立在满足性欲和提高地位前提下的三段无结果的爱情过程中三元人格的冲突；然后分析了克莱德随着其物欲逐渐熏心、权欲不断膨胀做出违法犯罪及判死刑的过程中三元人格的冲突与协调；最后分析了在母亲的帮助下克莱德的人性达到一种前所未有的协调。

关键词：西奥多·德莱塞 《美国的悲剧》 克莱德 本我 自我 超我 悲剧

An Analysis of Clyde’s Id, Ego and Superego in An American Tragedy Based on Tripartite Personality Structure Theory

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Theodore Dreiser and An American Tragedy

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) is one of the most famous novelists as well as a great naturalist in the twentieth-century America. He was born in a poor immigrant family from German believing in Catholicism, which accounted for his long-term struggle at the bottom of the society. However, due to his efforts, he had ever worked as editor and journalist and started to be engaged in literary creation in his young age. He was good at reflecting the life of underclass; in particular, he began to criticize American social life when he found the deficiencies of American capitalism and the peace and serenity in socialism. In addition, Dreiser has been profoundly affected by Freud’s theory that can specify his characters in his novels.

An American Tragedy, disposing the darkness of America, is set after the World War I when the free capitalism was boosting and the world was relatively peaceful; accordingly, the ambitions of people were expanding in such a materialistic society: Money worship, ultra-individualism, and hedonism cause all kinds of criminals, especially the murders for money or high status. Dreiser aims to convey his worry about American life style, thus predicting that the protagonist Clyde’s tragedy can be the whole county’s.

1.2 Freud's Tripartite Personality Structure

Sigmund Freud is one of the most well-known psychologist throughout the world, who a forerunner built the theories about personality in the history of psychology including the Personality Structure Theory and the Personality Development Theory. In the early period, Freud divided the personality into three levels: consciousness, subconsciousness and unconsciousness. Shortly after, he further proposed a new theory about personality composed of three elements: id, ego and superego. Id is related to the original structure, an important component of the subconsciousness called the impulse of human similar to the animal’s instinct, and it reflects the principle of happiness. Ego refers to the role of bridge between the Id and superego that supervises human mind and promises appropriate self-satisfaction, which reflects the principle of reality. Superego itself is the most ethic element at the top of Personality Structure representing the conscience, self-ideal, which reflects the principle of ideal. As for Freud, if id, ego, and superego are out of balance, a person will behave abnormally. (Theory: The Ego and the Id, 1990)

According to Freud, id, ego and superego are not isolated from each other, instead, they interact with each other and have their own effects on personality structure. Id is the most active and instinctive part in human tripartite personality structure, that is, if someone chooses his innate need or impulse without any constraint so that his power of id will be stronger out of control. However, everyone has a defense mechanism to defend against the sensation of anxiety or original impulses. In human inner defense mechanism, the superego usually plays a role of supervisor to obey the social ethic and morality by instructing ego to restrict the id in a proper degree. In another words, ego serves as a mediator to reconcile the two extreme parts, id and ego so as to keep a normal man. They belong to distinct levels of consciousness. The superego and ego are parts of consciousness, while id is absolutely concluded by subconsciousness lying at the Board line between consciousness and unconsciousness, which just like an ice in the sea. Though the ice sways back and forth, the personality structure still maintains a dynamic balance if the id is controlled well.

1.3 Value of the Analysis of Clyde’s Whole Life: Worship of Materialistic Life, Pursuit of Love and Tragic Ending

An American Tragedy is a paramount work accomplishment. In this novel, the protagonist Clyde is a representative young man who has a complicated personality structure. Thus, this thesis will mainly analyze this personality structure in accordance with Freud’s Tripartite Personality Structure Theory. From the progress of this analysis, we can not only work out how Clyde’s mentality and behavior change but also grasp how the change of psychology lead to his tragedy. Therefore, we can further comprehend the value and the significance of the novel An American Tragedy.

As the three elements of the personality structure, in this novel, Clyde’s id, ego and

superego constantly struggle with, conflict with and coordinate with each other. In Clyde’s whole life, the id always occupies the dominant position, while the ego wants to control the id under the direction of the social principles but always fails, let alone the superego which is defined by the social ethic and morality. In order to adapt to the social reality, Clyde pursues what most youngsters want to have and indulges his desires to expand continually until he goes towards the death that’s his final ending, tragic ending.

In addition, from the perspective of Freud’s Tripartite Personality Structure Theory(Personality Structure in short), this thesis will be organized on the basis of the conflicts and coordination among id, ego and superego in the different periods, including worship of materialistic life, pursuit of Love, tragic ending, thus, it will compensate for the shortage of specialized analysis on the relation between personality and human desires.

Chapter 2 Literature Review

Up to now, an immense number of studies on the novel An American Tragedy have been implemented based on those perspectives, such as Naturalism, Consumerism and Feminism, etc. However, only the Freudian psychoanalysis on An American Tragedy can keep track of the society.

2.1 Studies on Dreiser and An American Tragedy

In foreign countries, the earlier assessments about Dreiser and An American Tragedy, admittedly, play the important part to help readers to understand Dreiser and the cultural background, but sometimes they neglect the specificity of the work and the dominant role it plays. As the literary develop, in the middle of the twentieth century, the study on Dreiser has turned into the study of the text. However, this approach develops into the other extreme: the text analysis has already excluded the historical and social system. Until the 1980s, hundreds of methods of various schools on Dreiser's work has sprung up, such as Feminism, Freud's psychoanalysis, Post - Structuralism, which has made the study of the novel deeper in structure, wider in connotation. For example, Aileen Covermou’s work Naturalistic Strength(1994) has pointed out that "Dreiser's novels created the subjectivity through the role playing". The contemporary critic Luis Zanen in his work Mechanical Materialism and Mysticism: The Influence of Science on Theodore Dreiser’s Thoughts and Works(1993) profoundly analyzes the naturalism and mysticism tension in Dreiser’s work, but it has merely indicated that Dreiser’s thoughts can derive from Transcendentalism, Quaker thought and India Philosophy.

In China, the well-renowned professor and foreign culture translator, Xu Ruzhi, a famous scholar who has translated An American Tragedy, initiates to study the background of this novel and it’s author Dreiser. In his theses Brief Comment on Dreiser(1984) and The Transition of Dreiser Study, he believes that Dreiser connected the background of Clyde’s life to the time when the capitalism dominated the society and the socialism was frail. The capitalistic time of Dreiser is full of hedonism, egoism and materialism, with which almost every one lives for his own lust, so we can see the reasons why Dreiser wrote such

kind of tragedy caused by a great number of social crimes, such as murders, rape, and corruption. To some extent, professor Xu’s study on An American Tragedy sets the root on the background of Dreiser’s life. In general, our domestic researches on Dreiser and his work are lacking of a longitudinal comparison of consciousness, and many of them are restricted to a specific text analysis. According to Jiang Daochao(his book, Study on Dreiser,2003), to find out the evolution of Dreiser’s techniques and themes in the whole writing progress, the study on Dreiser’s novel should be conducted by applying the method of the combination between cultural criticisms and text analyses.

2.2 Theories of the Studies on Dreiser’s Works

For a long time, due to Dreiser’s particularity, some limitations exist in the studies on Dreiser’ s works home and abroad:

First of all, some studies on Dreiser’s works mainly focus on the moral issues: the protagonist exactly should be condemned and executed to death. For instance, the mental activity that Clyde wanted to the pregnant woman Robert for pursuing the wealth and beauty of the blue-blooded lady Sondra. Secondly, about Dreiser’s literary technique, critics tend to define it as Realism or Naturalism. Last but not least, some criticisms generally attribute Dreiser’s works to the prevailing thirsty of social power and materialism in American capitalistic society. Even if some of those are the subjects of studies, few can reveal the real and complete connotation in Dreiser’s novels, especially An American Tragedy.

In order to avoid the misunderstanding of Dreiser, Professor Jiang Daochao points out the reasonable method that we should study the different connotations of Dreiser’s different works in a dialectical way, and research the course of Dreiser’s thought under the consciousness of the development and the meticulous spirit of text analysis.

2.3 Interpretation of An American Tragedy Based on Freudian Tripartite Personal Structure Theory

As Dreiser has spent a long time studying Freud’s theories, it is likely to ascribe the evil roots of tragic life to the humanity. Besides, in today’s complicated society, people have to focus on the evolution of humanity which is of tremendous significance to the development of human civilization. Hence, some scholars, especially in China, hold that the protagonist Clyde’s tragedy results from the imbalance among id, ego and superego in his personal structure.

The professor Zhang Jianchun and Huang Mei (2012) conclude, “People should measure their behavior by using ethical standards to suppress the temptation of the instinctive desire so that they can make a clear distinction between the good and the bad”(80) that has paid attention to the psychological changes of Clyde in different environments. However, their thesis has little introductions about environments or living standards in different places. Huang yusheng(2011) studies this novel from the perspective of Psychoanalytic Interpretation that analyzes the protagonist Clyde’s personality, not only involving the Sigmund Freud’s personal structure but also the mental state and psychophysical condition from the theory of Hans Gross, an Austrian criminal psychologist. Zhu Jiang and Bao Yuxiao(2012) present their analysis on the character Clyde’s tripartite personality, which has paid more attention to the incarnations of id, ego and superego in Clyde, such as the indulgent id, the lost ego and looming superego, actually little about the conflicts and coordination among id, ego and superego. Wang Yuzhi and Xie Danyan(2014) point out that Clyde’s tragedy, not only a personal but also an American one, has connected the protagonist’s destiny closely with the development of American capitalism, but focused more on American dreams and capitalism.

Therefore, this paper will make an interpretation of An American Tragedy from Freudian Tripartite Personal Structure Theory and give further explanation on how the changes of one’s personality will have an influence on his fate, which causes Clyde’s tragedy in particular. In addition, this thesis will combine the social and cultural background of Dreiser’s time with the psychoanalysis so as to understand the work with it’s profoundly meaningful title, An American Tragedy. In the progress of this thesis, we will gradually know the tragedy is not only one man’s tragedy but also all of young men’s tragedies who are the future of American, which can be explained into a whole country’s tragedy, American tragedy.

Chapter 3 The Conflict Among Id, Ego and Superego in Clyde's Worship of Materialistic Life

3.1 Worship of Material Life

3.1.1 The apathy of missionary life

Clyde’s family has a profound influence on his personality. Clyde’s father and mother are the loyal preachers and Christians, always reading the Bible and preaching in different places, which Clyde has shown little interest in but he has to follow his parents to be a pious person. Once they arrived at some place, they play the organ, read the hymn books and sing hymns to glorify the God regardless of having listeners or not. However, according to Clyde, it is very shameful and shabby. He doesn’t want to be a member of his family to do such dreadful and degrading job.

Although Clyde’s parents are doing what they think of as a holy mission, nothing has an educational and practical value on their children. To him, such religious life will destroy him sooner or later. Besides, this missionary life deviates from the real society that is filled with material, sex and enjoyments. Clyde’s sister Esta is pregnant before marriage. Before he found his so-called decent job, he is a relatively innocent boy suffering from the depression of no friends; he is humiliated by his sister Esta’s elopement with a strange man and thinks it a dreadful or “disagreeable affairs”.

As for the failures of education from his family, school and the sick society, the deprivation of material easily drives him mad. In order to satisfy his desires for gaining things, he thinks nothing about others’ feeling and shoulders no responsibilities, heedless of any consequence. In this period, Clyde’s id is not evident while his ego and superego control his mind that determines he remains a decent man.

3.1.2 The lure of materialistic life

Clyde’s curiosity about higher-level lifestyle fosters the id instead of sublimating the ego. Compared Clyde’s own life with some wealthy boys, he begins to hate his religious life which lags far behind the current situation of American economy and technology. As most young people believe, everyone who has the ambition, the courage, the spirit of persistence can make a fortune. It’s no wonder the worship of material grows in Clyde’s inner world. Poor as Clyde is, he is too self-important and conceited to like people who looks up him. He dreams to have a decent shirt, a nicer collar, a beautiful suit and a polished leather shoes just like other men have; big and modern houses, many expensive watches, luxury rings just as the rich boys possess. Gradually, Clyde loses himself in a dandy life being a playboy.

Clyde is obsessed with getting fame, and chases wealth, status and enjoyment. After being an adult, he works in a large hotel as a waiter, which experience brings him and makes him accustomed to the extravagant lifestyle. From then on, he pursues such kind of life consistently. After a few years of leading a vagrant life, Clyde comes to and works in Lycurgus New York where his uncle runs a factory to manufacture the shirt and collar. Soon after, he becomes a headman in this factory. Nevertheless, what interests Clyde most about his parents is his rich uncle, Samuel Griffiths, a shrewd, successful businessman who has a huge house and owns this large-scaled factory, which Clyde has been dreaming of.

According to his egotism, he despises the labor class whose jobs are degrading in his mind, so he works as a waiter with stable salary and schedule for time off. Every week, he earns twenty-eight dollars to forty-two dollars and more tips. Lately, his domination of money leads him to be an egoistic man who manages to hide more money for himself and less for his family. With money, he can buy new clothes, watch dramas and go wherever he wants to go, which indicates that he has plunged himself in the depth of money-worship and materialistic life. Thus, his id surpasses the ego and continues to challenge the superego.

3.1.3 The progress of humanity depravity

Gradually, Clyde’s materialistic life has destroys his sense, conquers his ego and suppresses his superego. It seems that everything around Clyde has a huge magic power seducing him, especially, the richness. He likes going to bars where the atmosphere would make him like a rich man to satisfy his sense of fulfillment and joy of consumption; he enjoys watching men and women who have ruddy contented looks and are fashionably dressed; he admires the people who can afford to own different cars or other vehicles. In the

past, he thought both wine and alcohol were bad for health; he thought sexual reverie was shameful for Christians; he thinks he should listen to his mother to pursue the sincere belief. During that time, he follows his conscience and kindness. However, since he entered the society, he has changed his mind and believed that grandeur meant to be rich, to have more money so as to go anywhere and to buy anything as long as he enjoy. That’s to say, he gives up struggling with his id and involves himself in a life of luxury and dissipation.

3.2 The Conflict Among Id, Ego and Superego in Materialistic Life

The first impression of Clyde is presented that he is in a poor state and thirsty for a wealthy life. With the desire for material grows up, he regards the poverty as a despicable thing but can be switched easily. Due to the background of poor family, Clyde is in a deep woe. He wants to change this painful state. Through he preaches following with his parents on the street regularly, he is usually jealous with other boys of his age wearing decent clothes and driving limousines on the streets of Kansas City, flirting with beautiful girls. For him, it can be forgiven to desire the material life with the reason that everyone should pursue the rich life. Thus, Such instinctive thought engages him in worship for money. Since he can earn money, he starts to dress himself just like other boys do. No matter how his parents restrict him, he still listens to his id to play for fun.

In accordance with Freud’s theory, humans can be guided not by some unavoidable situations or intelligence but by some instinctual power which appears unconciously and makes up the basic part of the personality structure.Finally, the first conflict of Clyde’s id, ego and superego has come into being. With no worry about health, no responsibility for conscience, no restriction to realistic temptations, Clyde’s life goes recklessly and selfish. That is to say, Clyde has betrayed all his beneficial values and subordinated his natural instinct to money and social status, which ultimately foretells his depressing omen. Thus, the ego has lost its function to reconcile id with superego, resulting in the abnormal development of Clyde’s personality.

Chapter 4 The Conflict Among Id, Ego and Superego in Clyde's Pursuit of Love

4.1 Pursuit of Sexual Desires

In this novel, love is not “true love” but “Clyde’s love”. According to Freud’s theory,material and sexuality are considered as the two basic natures, which origins from the primitive human beings without any constraint, which means that the desire of materialism and sex can be the evil root of any social crime. Actually, the id is instructed by the enjoyment principle and immediate satisfaction. Conflicting with his family’s belief, Clyde’s lust is so strong to weave the tragedy for him.

4.1.1“Love” between Clyde and Hortense

In his first love, he enjoys the sexual attraction and freshness that Hortense poses. Hortense is a mendacious and low-class woman that makes money by her appearance and exterior ornaments. Clyde dreams to go close to Hortense, which expresses his evil idea and sexual libido. In the progress of aspiring Hortense, Clyde attempts to guide her to entice him to have an enjoyable sexual experience that means she can do something to satisfy him. However, she seems to be unwilling to do such things to please him, and she even is stingy to give him an embrace or a kiss. Unavoidable, Clyde fails in obtaining the sexual need, and meanwhile suffers from the repression of the superego. He is clear “ her deliciously near him, pressing against him——her delightful body ——an illusion only”(An American Tragedy 100). But for the distance Hortense always keeps, he might realize his eagerness for sexual libido so as to spoil or strengthen the id. The dream of sexuality is like a drug to release the sorrow of addiction to lust.

It is this woman that causes Clyde to neglect his family. His ego tells him that he should support his pregnant sister Esta with money rather than buy expensive coat for Hortense, but his id stops him to make a wiser decision to sympathize with his sister, while his superego condemns him that he is a bad guy and will be punished sooner or later. In the light of higher payment for Hortense’s coat and his deeply lust, his id misleads him to

yield to her sexual lure. No matter how overtly Hortense shows her affections for the other men in dance and skating, he forgives her and tries to contact her. In fact, his ego reminds him that Hortense does not love him at all, except for material need and beloved satisfaction. Besides, his superego attempts to persuade him not to waste too much time or lose himself in his dreamy love, but it doesn’t work. But for an accident, this false love wouldn’t have been terminated.

4.1.2 “Love” between Clyde and Roberta

After Clyde works in his uncle’s collar factory, a young woman worker comes to interests him more than any other girl. Her name is Roberta Alden, a clever, elegant and likable girl. She has twinkling and big eyes, temping tips, cute smile, graceful arms, fascinating neck. In addition, Roberta has the same family background with Clyde, and she is tolerant, positive, merciful and honest, which serves as one reason why Clyde loves her. For another reason, in spite of her poor clothes, Roberta looks much prettier and cuter than any other woman worker under Clyde’s management. She enjoys her work and need not make up herself every day as any other beauty-pursuing girl need. In the hot days in Summer, when Roberta works hard, the tiny beads of sweat gather over her forehead, lovely chin even her upper lip, which seem like jewels that makes her more sexy and fascinating to Clyde. He cherishes every moment when he works close to her, which is fascinating for him.

Therefore, the id encourages Clyde to seduce Roberta to satisfy his sexuality and possessive desire, though his ego reminds him not to hurt this ignorant and pure girl if without any genuine promise. Lately, he meets the wealthy and elegant girl Sondra, and his entanglement in a triangle love with two completely different girls, Roberta and Sondra, makes his id, ego and superego fall into an absolutely imbalanced state. his id leads him like Satan to destroy the poor girl bit by bit until she is pregnant and doomed to be a sacrifice for Clyde’s status and wealth. His superego censures him for being a seducer and a rebel of his orthodoxy; his ego tries to guide him to accept the innocent girl or find measures to help her get rid of the misery that he induces to her. Contrarily, he has become the slave of devil, and evil ideas occupy his mind without any space for ego and superego, which the id goes overwhelmingly to hide the last light in Clyde’s soul.

4.1.3 “Love” between Clyde and Sondra

However, the love between Clyde and Roberta disappears gradually when he first meets the up-class girl Sondra Finchley. She is superior to any other girl with her incomparable intelligence and elegance. In Clyde’s eyes, she is such different and adorable girl that he ever had seen before. It seems that she has successfully attracted Clyde’s attention at the first sight. Once Clyde looks at Sondra, it feels like the electricity arouse his soul and thrills his mind, which is the first time for him to have such sensation. No doubt, he is completely enticed by her. To seduce Sondra, Clyde spilled out his “faithful praise” about how deeply he loves her. Her beauty, her smile, her dances and so forth actions or behaviors she does affect him that make him crazy. Such enthusiastic and manic words captivate Sondra’s heart. As she thinks highly that he is so different and fascinating that she loses herself in his words and passion. To maintain such exciting and distinctive love, Sondra determines to lie to her mother and try to contrive chances to date with Clyde clandestinely.

All the sins arise from his pursuit of social status and “love”. Undoubtedly, Sondra’s elegance and beauty have to be regarded as the fatal temptation for Clyde. Once in a while, his ego doubts his love so that he wants to change his evil idea and forget Sondra. However, for Sondra’s love, for a promising future, he deceives Roberta shamelessly and schemes to murder her inhumanly. Does it really deserve? Sondra’s love can support him to promote the position in this materialistic community, but it can wash away his sins. After all, Sondra comes from a wealthy and honorable family, and it is not difficult to analyze her characteristics. Once she recognizes Clyde is the murderer of Roberta, she fears that her fame and family reputation will be defaced. All in all, the harsh fact that Clyde himself bases love on money and social status ruins his future in the transformation of his personality structure.

4.2 The Conflict Among Id, Ego and Superego in Love

Three kinds of love, as we can see from what we have analyzed above, are not true love. It seems that Clyde is easy to be fascinated by girls that can be one of important causes resulting in his tragedy. His first lover, Hortense is a selfish hedonist. To get her longing objects, she can do any things to lure men. She tempts Clyde but always tantalize him though he bought a fur coat for her. Clyde’s second love, Roberta is relatively innocent girl who is murdered by her dearest lover. She has a similar family background as Clyde dose. When she loves Clyde, her leader, she dreams to have a better life. Even though their romantic love is forbidden in the factory, she conceits that there will surely be one day that Clyde can change her lower state and poor situation in this society. Clyde’s third lover, Sondra, a wealthy and noble girl. Thanks to her decent birth background and rich family, Sondra has the advantage to be proud of herself and self-concerned. What she enjoys most is others’ admiration and appreciation. Clever as Clyde is, he says to Sondra a lot of blandishments to cater to her appetite. But for Clyde’s constantly pursuit and passionate words, she wouldn’t notice him and find such a different and handsome boy at all. Of course, Clyde can be a good choice to fill her vanity. However, to Clyde, every girl can be used to satisfy his sexual need, especially Hortence and Roberta, while Sondra can be utilized to help him upgrade the higher class and improve the social status.

The pursuit of sexuality is the primitive need from his id that is quite barbarous beyond the control of ego, let alone the superego. In this progress of seducing girls, Clyde once has his struggles in mind, and usually the sexual desire dominates his thoughts, and the superego is too fragile to survive his mind. Meanwhile, the ego is still going on its death struggle. As to Clyde, no social values, no ethic should be considered, the instinctive desire is what he should do something impulsively to please. Thus, the relationships linking in the personality structure of id, ego and superego has been broken, and the conflict of the three elements about sexual conceptions cannot be avoided.

Chapter 5 The Coordination Among Id, Ego and Superego in Clyde's Tragic Ending

5.1 Clyde’s Guilt

In the second part of this novel, Clyde falls in love with Hortense. He exerts his efforts to tempt Hortense in the process of pursuing her until the car accident. He starts to live an anonymous life. In this period, his ego successfully conquer the id by obeying the laws and behaving himself. His id, ego and superego have achieved unprecedentedly temporary and relative balance. Clyde’s id is supervised by superego completely in this period. When he leaves his hometown, Kansas, he misses his mother and regrets for his selfishness to his family, so he mails some money of his income as compensates to his family. He sends letters to his mother that everything goes well to him, and he can take care of himself. As freud’s theory proves “If ego can’t drive id, superego will instruct id directly to do something as compensate to complete the mental or ethical deprivation.

Compared with material life and social status, Clyde’s superego is too frail to keep this harmony of personality structure, while the instinct rises sharply before long.

The most fatal accusation belongs to Clyde’s ferocious action of drowning the innocent pregnant girl, Roberta. Roberta’s pregnancy has turned into a great threat to his future. At the first impression, Clyde hates his lower and miserable family. In order to promote his social status and obtain more respect, he denies his past poor life by living a vain life with so much decoration, such as money, so called decent clothes and handsome cars. To achieve promising future, the easiest way is to marry a noble woman. However, Roberta’s pregnancy will destroy his dream. His id spurs him to design a plot to drown her just like an accident. While the ego sometimes seems to manage to suppress the vicious plan absolutely by persuading him that “better, freer, more natural, and more human”(An American Tragedy 460). For another, once he doesn’t murder Roberta, he thinks he will be buried in a gloomy and dark future or go back to his depressing and shameful family. Even though he hides Roberta, she also can be an intimidation to his glorious future sooner or

later. Consequently, the impulse of murdering Roberta becomes stronger and stronger beyond the control of the ego, the legal and conscientious principles. However, he is too young to plot the murdering and leaves a lot of evidence to convict his guilt.

5.2 Clyde’s Trail

In the progress of his trial, the conflict of Clyde’s id, ego and superego has contributed to his dual personality that grows to the extreme. Everyone must be accountable for his guilt regardless of psychological cause or self-defense. After all, Clyde is too young to be the first offender who has left a lot of proofs that can be applied to convict him, so he has been arrested and involved in Political rivalry between the two parties, Democratic and Republican Parties. The sort of murder is a common case but can be a media to improve one party’s fame, which more or less distorts the truth, regardless of approving of or defending for Clyde.

On the one hand, he thinks it is not all his faults to kill Roberta; he regrets his carelessness of leaving so much criminal evidence so that his attorney Benjamin says he is just a psychological and mental coward. He confesses his seduction and triangle love with two girls but refuses to accept the fact that he murders his “first love”. In the case of specific evidence, almost all people think that Clyde should be punished while Clyde still places a glimpse of hope on a series of sophistries until the last anonymous letter from Sondra. On the other hand, Clyde repents his merciless and sinful behavior that lead to a Roberta’s death. He felt sorry for his family, especially his mother who is the only one to trust and love him. His superego warns him that his shameful predicament distracts completely from his morality and purity that his mother believes in. Although he is sentenced to death, his mother, an ever shy and wordless mother delivers her speech to states or cities to seek for pity and help for his son. During this period for death, Clyde has read the Bible and many books piously, and meanwhile reflects on his short tragic life. He concludes, in the face of passions and desires, it is superior mentality and moral courage that led others to do much better than he does (Dreiser 2012).

5.3 The Conflict Among Id, Ego and Superego at the End of Clyde’s Life

In the progress of the whole trial, Clyde is convicted, sentenced and condemned to execution. In these days of prison, the superego grows stronger and stronger to set a fight with id. The id tries to escape the responsibility that persuades Clyde to hold the hope that some one can save him. However, where there is a hope, there may be a disappointment. After Clyde receives Sondra’s letter, he knows his last hope collapses. It’s the time for him to tell Reverend McMillan his sad and terrible——an evil and cruel self-torturing and destroying story. (An American Tragedy, 798) To kill the time in the prison, he has to read Bible. More contents he read, more guilty he will feel. Then the ego succeeds in suppressing the id and let the superego educate Clyde. He begins to realize what he has done really violates the law and hurts others.

Clyde feels very sorry for his mother who is the only person that never gives him up and always believes that he is innocent and merciful. For Clyde, the mother educates him to be godly and honest when he is just a little boy, but it doesn’t work; for Clyde, the mother persuades him to read Bible to find his lost honesty and morality; for Clyde, the mother successfully changes herself from a quiet and pious women to an eloquent one, and does her utmost to persuade others to believe his son that he is inculpable. All of these a common mother can do for her son without a little return is moving but unavailing, because of the sufficient evidence. Undoubtedly, Clyde should be punished and put to execution. At that moment when he accepts the death calmly, the ego can easily dominate id so that Clyde realize the reality that he murders Roberta and breaks the national law. In the meanwhile, the superego makes Clyde regret on his guilt and finally he finds his original conscience and morality.

Eventually, the id, ego and superego of Clyde has reached a state of coordination and harmony, as if the death can tell him what the true life is. His id follows the ego to listen to the superego to be a contrite sinner tranquilly. In addition, he wants to find a peaceful place where his soul can be washed cleanly, where his mind can be purified and where his spirit can be lighted. It is such place that can expel the darkness from his heart. At bottom, Clyde’s id, ego and superego have reached an everlasting balance. In other words, the

relationship among id, ego and superego is a kind of coordination; the transition from superb beginning to tragic ending is a kind of coordination; the connection of life and death is a kind of coordination; each coordination depends on one’s tendency.

Chapter 6 Conclusion

An American Tragedy exerts social significance on American society by reveling how a young man’s personality changes, which implies the reason why the materialistic and hedonistic life leads to a national misfortune and a national tragedy.

As a great writer, Dreiser creates the figure Clyde whose behaviors and mentality have universal meanings in reality. Before writing this novel, Dreiser has accumulated 15 cases of murders on how some young men turn themselves into criminals to meet their own desires, which has to expose the deficiencies of social moral conceptions that deform one’s personality structure not only Clyde’s. At that time, on behalf of a part of American youths, Clyde’s tragic life reflects the adversities that the early twentieth century brings to the young generation. Clyde's self-degeneration and self-destruction is not only a personal tragedy, but also the tragedy of the whole society. In order to better comprehend this novel, the paper has profoundly interpreted how the transformations of Clyde’s personality structure mislead him go to perdition step by step.

According to Freud’s Tripartite Personality Structure Theory, it is not hard to realize that Clyde’s tragic ending results from the maladjustment of his id, ego and superego. Conclusively, if a person cannot control his instinctive impulse but to satisfy the boundless desires, he will be doomed to go into the hell made by himself. Also with endless struggles of id, ego and superego, too many blunders can be made to life. Thus there is no doubt that people should evaluate their manners by using the ethical standards of superego rather than the impulsion under id. In any case, instead of pursuing one’s own desires by hurting others, people should be meticulous to maintain the balance of id, ego and superego, to weigh the advantages and disadvantages in any decisions, and to keep kindness and passion in life.

So far, through the analysis of An American Tragedy on the basis of Freudian Tripartite Personal Structure Theory, this reveals Clyde’s tragedy caused by his imbalances and conflicts among id, ego and superego. Furthermore, in spite of Freudian Personal Structure, it is a good choice to analyze the protagonist Clyde from the perspective of Freudian other psychoanalytic theories, such as self-defense mechanism, consciousness,

unconsciousness, subconsciousness and dream interpretation, which will help us comprehend An American Tragedy profoundly in today’s social and cultural background.

References

Chen,Shuai [陈帅], The Consumerism Culture in "American Tragedy". Russia: Moscow, Proceedings of the 2016 2nd International Conference: Arts, Design and Contemporary Education (ICADCE 2016)[C]. 2016.

Dreiser, Theodore. An American Tragedy. Beijing: China Translation amp; Publishing Co., Ltd., 2012.

Freud, Sigmund. The Ego and the Id. New York: W. W. Norton amp; Company, 1990.

Hu, Tiesheng [胡铁生], 《美国文学论稿》: 论德莱塞小说的悲剧性———透视美国政治制度下的人际关系． 长春: 吉林大学出版社，2011: 113．

Jiang, Daochao[蒋道超]，《德莱塞研究》. 上海：上海外语教育出版社，2003.

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